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Day 21, (Friday) – “The Beginning of the Beginning”

As we come closer to the final week of Jesus' ministry, before his arrest, I wanted us to look at the events surrounding his journey to Jerusalem.

“And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.
 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said” (Luke 18:31-34).

We are over the midway period of the Lenten season.  There came a time in the Gospels when Jesus turned to his disciples and told them where he was going to lead them – Jerusalem – and what was going to happen when they got there – His death.  We are reminded, they didn’t understand either the “what” or the “why”.  This Gospel reading represents “the beginning of the beginning”.  Did you notice I didn’t write “the beginning of the end”? 

For Jesus, what lay ahead was a road to travel, a valley to cross, a mission to accomplish, teaching to be delivered, suffering and pain, and a doorway to a glorious future – it was the beginning of the beginning.

Let me try to connect this with some theology.  To begin with, we must see the connection of both Christology (the study of Christ) and Soteriology (the study of Salvation) within the Gospels.  When the early Church began after Pentecost, there was a mystery and a majesty of Christ Jesus’ ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. The Spirit of God empowered the Church but also led the church into the truth of the mystery of Christ Jesus. 

What we must understand is that Christology is never separated from Soteriology.  Jesus Christ came through the Virgin’s birth – the incarnation of God with us as God and Man.  The reason why Jesus Christ can bring salvation to his people is because he was both human and divine.  The Church needed to affirm and explain this, and so for four centuries the Church Fathers wrestled with how best to describe both the person of Christ Jesus (Christology) and the purpose of Christ Jesus – salvation (Soteriology). 

If He was not truly God, then he could not save us.  If he was not truly Human, he could not save us.  The divine and human are not separated, nor alone, but totally united in the single person of Jesus Christ.  In summary, Christianity defined by the Church through the ages, confesses that Jesus is the Christ, the Promised Savior of God who died to save us and was resurrected to prove God is behind it all.

Jesus announced to his disciples – “we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished”.  When he told them of his suffering, death, and resurrection, they could not understand it…what? Why?  What they did not understand was that all of this was the beginning of the beginning.  It would be decades later, in their Apostolic writings that it would be unveiled. 

The Apostle Paul may have grasped it the most as he wrote for one of the last times to Timothy while imprisoned in Rome, awaiting his execution.

“I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:12-17).

It is simple – Christ Jesus saves sinners.  To have salvation in Christ goes beyond any simple rules or phrases.  The word “salvation” came from the Latin word “salus” which meant “health”.  It is in our brokenness of sin from the creation fall that God embarked on a plan that sent His son into the world – the incarnation, that made redemption, conversion, justification, and sanctification possible.  To be saved is to be fully and permanently united with God and with one another – the Church – in God through Jesus Christ.

What Christ Jesus began was by traveling a road towards suffering, and it was just the beginning of the beginning, and it has not come to an end.


Peace

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